5 Things You Didn't Know About Spider-Man III

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The release of Spider-Man III is still a long way off — the current tentative release date is scheduled for May 4th, 2007. Of course, that hasn't stopped people from yammering on and speculating about the movie. And we're not just talking about Spider-Man nerds here. The first two installations of the franchise hit such a chord with theatergoers that it seems that everyone wants the inside scoop on what we can expect from the next one.

But, given that this movie's release is still so far off, there wouldn't really seem to be much of an inside scoop to speak of. Or would there?

Creating each of the first two movies was a colossal enterprise, devouring all kinds of time and money (for Spider-Man II , $54 million was spent on the digital effects alone).

So it shouldn't come as a surprise that pre-production on the third film is already underway — with rumors regarding it leaking on a weekly basis. Here are five things you probably didn't know about Spider-Man III .

1- Spider-Man III will be the third of a planned six movies The success of The Lord of the Rings popularized trilogies as a money-making route for the studios. According to Spider-Man director Sam Raimi, Sony Pictures is upping the ante, and the third installation will only mark the halfway point for the franchise.

In a May 2005 interview, Raimi revealed that Sony chairman Amy Pascal hopes to do a total of six Spider-Man movies. In fact, preparations for the latter half are already in the works: when Sony signed screenwriter Alvin Sargent ( Spider-Man II , Paper Moon , Ordinary People ) up for Spider-Man III , they included an option for a fourth movie in his contract. The studio has not yet, however, extended the services of its two leading stars. Tobey Maguire and Kirsten Dunst have not committed to the franchise beyond a third movie, and both have stated publicly that they have no intention of doing so.

2- Spider-Man III will feature multiple villains While Sony's lips are firmly sealed regarding which villains Peter Parker will be facing off against in Spider-Man III , they have let it be known that there will be at least two of them, and that Topher Grace and Thomas Hayden Church will be assuming the roles. The most popular rumor pegs their characters as Venom and Sandman. This belief is reinforced by the physical similarities between Grace and Maguire (which would make Grace an ideal cast for the role of Spider-Man's alter ego) and Church's own remarks regarding pre-production, wherein casts were taken of his body to be used towards creating prosthetics (in keeping with Sandman's character).

Of course, the conjecture regarding Spider-Man III villains doesn't end there, and some have suggested that the movie will host as many as four baddies. All of this casting clairvoyance should be taken with a grain of salt, however — there was plenty of guesswork regarding who would play who in the previous Spider-Man movies, most of which was proved entirely false or was thwarted by last-minute cast changes. Heath Ledger was initially rumored to be Spider-Man. Nicolas Cage and John Malkovich were both offered the role of the Green Goblin before it went to Willem Dafoe. And Alicia Witt and Kate Hudson were both purportedly in the running to play Mary Jane before Kirsten Dunst was cast.